We have incorporated some of Quimby's letters in the volume because they prepare the way for the articles and essays by showing Quimby's great love for facts. In these letters Quimby shows himself a friend of the sick. He tells his patients precisely where they stand in such a way as to encourage true faith and well-grounded hope. He writes about symptoms in some detail because his patients must first know that they are getting well physically, because they need tangible evidence, and do not yet understand how he can diagnose their cases intuitively and heal them at a distance. He shows that he wishes those only as patients who will take him in entire good faith, responding willingly to his efforts. Hence he returns money when patients seem to be purchasing his skill as healer. He aims above all to point the way to his Truth or Science.
Disciples of mental healing who have taken their clues from Divine Science or Mrs. Eddy's version will think they are hearing about an inferior theory, because matters of fact are made prominent in Quimby's writings instead of the anticipated idealism and the affirmations or denials to which they are accustomed. But they are likely to be unmindful of the unfriendly age in which Quimby worked, if not neglectful of a larger truth. Quimby, with far-reaching insight, grasped the whole situation, and looked through existing conditions to the ideal. This is a much more courageous venture than the denial of actuality in fondness for the abstract. Quimby's standard calls for a Science that can be demonstrated, can prove itself thoroughly Christian in thought, life, interpretation of Scripture, and all. It will send us back to the Gospel anew to ask why the process of coming to judgment is essential to spiritual rebirth, why we must adopt life as given in its fulness in order to entertain as ideal “the Christ.” We will then see why Quimby never denied the existence of the natural world, although sometimes referring to it as a mere shadow, and contending that matter contains no intelligence. We will also note that he assigns “mind” to a very subordinate position in contrast with spirit, since his investigations had shown him that the average mind is subject to opinions, it is indeed a “mind of opinions,” later called by Mrs. Eddy “mortal mind.” Then we shall find him turning to that Wisdom which sees through
